The X6DA8-G2 by Supermicro.

Board Revision: 1.1

BIOS Version: 1.1 (08/14/2004)

We received one of the flagship motherboards of Supermicro's E7525 product family. The X6DA8-G2 uses the 6700PXH and Intel's ICH5R Southbridge. In addition to that, the manufacturer placed an Ultra320 chip onto the 8-layer board.

Thanks to a smart motherboard design, the north bridge, the memory and the voltage regulators are automatically ventilated by the CPU fans' air streams. This may be one reason for the high price of approximately $680. If that is too much for you, check out Supermicro's website where 10 different E7525 boards are available.

This board requires an EPS12V power supply (ATX 2.02).

The little buddy next to the 8-pin auxiliary power connector is a SM-bus connector for the power supply. Thanks to it, the motherboard is able to monitor the power supply status - as long as the PSU supports this feature, too.

Two 6-phase regulators provide voltage for both Xeon processors.

Supermicro was smart enough to design the voltage regulating circuits very flexibly. If required by a customer, another phase may easily be added.

Since all components are ventilated by CPU fan air streams, there is no need for extensive cooling solutions.